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Neuron Digest   Wednesday,  2 Apr 1997                Volume 97 : Issue 16

Today's Topics:
                     Graduate Students: New programs
                    Postdoctoral Position from 3/1/97
                III Brazilian Congress on Neural Networks
                        ICONIP'97:special session
                        CALL FOR PAPER: NICROSP97
                          post-doc at BFGoodrich
                Final Call for Papers: IEEE Special Issue
                     Model of orientation selectivity
                                   GMDH
                   vision postdoc position at Columbia
                Crete Course in Computational Neuroscience


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The ftp archives (including back issues) are available from
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"archive-server@psych.upenn.edu".

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Graduate Students: New programs
From:    Stephen Jose Hanson <jose@kreizler.rutgers.edu>
Date:    Sat, 22 Mar 1997 06:08:47 -0500

PLEASE REPOST...

The Department of Psychology of Rutgers University-Newark Campus is
immediately soliciting Graduate Student Candidates in the area of
COGNITIVE SCIENCE.  Highly Competitive (18-20k$) Graduate RESEARCH
Assistantships are available for students to bridge from Computer Science
or EE to Psychology or specifically in areas of Cognitive Science. The new
program in Psychology will include new tracks in COGNITIVE AND PERCEPTUAL
SYSTEMS; EMOTION & ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR SYSTEMS and COMPUTATIONAL
NEUROSCIENCE: Relevant interest areas are in Connectionist Modeling,
Cognitive modeling, Intelligent Tutoring systems, Learning systems,
Distance learning, or Multimedia systems.  Research opportunites exist
across Psychology-Rutgers, NJ Center for Multimedia Research and Center
for Compuational Neuroscience (with CMBN). Please send as soon as possible
your applications to Professor Stephen Jos Hanson, Chair, Department of
Psychology, 101 Warren Street, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ 07102.
Email inquires can be made to jose@psychology.rutgers.edu.

PLEASE REPOST...

Stephen Jose Hanson
Professor & Chair
Department of Psychology
Rutgers University
Newark, NJ 07102

email: jose@psychology.rutgers.edu
voice: 201-648-5095
fax:     201-648-1171

------------------------------

Subject: Postdoctoral Position from 3/1/97
From:    Charles Bruce <charles.bruce@yale.edu>
Date:    Wed, 26 Mar 1997 09:59:52 -0500

Postdoctoral Position
Integrative Neurophysiology

A postdoctoral NIMH fellowship is available immediately to study the
neurophysiological basis of sensorimotor and cognitive processing in
monkey neocortex.  Cortical organization and function are studied using
single- and multiple-neuron recording, microstimulation and reversible
inactivation of small cortical regions, interneuronal correlations of
spike trains, ect.  applied during performance of sensorimotor and
mnemonic tasks.  The frontal eye field, supplementary eye field, and
related cortical association areas are investigated with the ultimate
purpose of developing realistic computational model of the network of
cortical areas that underlie sensory, motor, and cognitive integration.

Experience in neurophysiological, computational, or behavioral neuroscience is 
desired.

US citizenship or permanent resident status required for NIMH fellowships.

Send CV and names of two references to:

Charles Bruce, Ph.D.
Section of Neurobiology
Yale University School of Medicine
333 Cedar St Rm 303C SHM
PO Box 208001
New Haven, CT 06520-8001

Phone: (203) 737-2727
Fax:  (203) 785-5263
Email:  charles.bruce@yale.edu
http://info.med.yale.edu/neurobio/bruce/bruce.html


------------------------------

Subject: III Brazilian Congress on Neural Networks
From:    "Cairo L. Nascimento Jr." <cairo@ita.cta.br>
Organization: Instituto Tecnologico de Aeronautica (ITA) - Fax: +55 12 340 5878
Date:    Wed, 26 Mar 1997 23:09:01 -0200


        III BRAZILIAN CONGRESS ON NEURAL NETWORKS and
         IV BRAZILIAN SCHOOL   ON NEURAL NETWORKS
            (Brazilian Council on Neural Networks)

         Web Page: http://www.inf.ufsc.br/~cbrn-bar/


            CALL FOR PAPERS AND PARTICIPATION
                  SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT


         Florianopolis, Brazil, July 21-24, 1997


The III Brazilian Congress on Neural Networks (III CBRN) and the
IV Brazilian School on Neural Networks (IV ERN), sponsored by the
Brazilian Council on Neural Networks, will be held in Florianopolis,
Brazil, July 21-24, 1997. The Brazilian Council on Neural Networks
is composed by the following scientific societies: SBA (Brazilian
Society of Automatics), SBEB (Brazilian Society of Biomedical
Engineering), SBF (Brazilian Society of Physics) and SBMAC (Brazilian
Society of Applied and Computational Mathematics).

This congress will be hosted by UFSC (Federal University of Santa
Catarina), Department of Statistics and Informatics and the Research Group
in Biomedical Engineering. This event continues a successful series that
begun in Rio de Janeiro with the 1st Brazilian Workshop on Neural Networks
and the 1st Brazilian School on Neural Networks (1992, PUC-RJ) and
continued in Itajuba (1994, EFEI) and Curitiba (1995, COPEL), with the 1st
and 2nd Brazilian Congresses and the 2nd and 3rd Brazilian Schools on
Neural Networks.

The IV Brazilian School on Neural Networks will be held on July 21,
1997, and it will consist of introductory and advanced short courses
taught by specialists in the area.

The III Brazilian Congress on Neural Networks will be held on 22, 23,
and 24 July 1997 and it will consist, among other activities, of:
- - - tutorials by national and international invited speakers,
- - - presentations of technical articles selected by the Program Committee,
  following the recommendations of senior researchers in the field
  from Brazil and abroad,
- - - round-tables for discussion on neural network related subjects,
- - - the ordinary assembly of the Brazilian Council on Neural Networks.

MAIN TOPICS

This Congress will be dedicated to the theory and application of
Neural Networks and other related areas. Therefore submissions of
papers related, but not limited, to the topics listed below are
invited:
- - - theory of the connectionist approach to computational intelligence
- - - neural networks and cognitive science
- - - sensation and perception
- - - new paradigms on neural networks
- - - learning and memory
- - - neural models of biological systems
- - - neural network implementations in software and hardware
- - - evolutionary algorithms
- - - fuzzy logic
- - - fuzzy neural systems
- - - connectionist expert systems
- - - applications in robotics and control
- - - applications in production systems
- - - applications in forecasting
- - - applications in pattern recognition
- - - applications in image and signal processing
- - - applications in physics
- - - applications in geophysics
- - - applications in tomography
- - - applications in biomedical engineering
- - - applications in the financial market
- - - applications in electric power systems.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

1 - Introduction

All accepted papers will be fully published in the congress proceedings.
The congress seeks papers with original contributions but tutorials
are also welcome. Submitted papers must be in English, Portuguese
or Spanish. The papers in Portuguese or Spanish should have an abstract
in English.

The manuscript should be written on A4 (210 mm x 297 mm) paper with up to
6 pages (including figures) and printed using a laser printer. Single line
spacing should be used throughtout the article. Margins for the first page
should be as follows: top margin, 7 cm (for inclusion of the congress
logotype); bottom, left and right margins, 2.5 cm. All margins for the
other pages should be 2.5 cm.

Use Times New Roman typeface 10 pt throughtout the article, but use 14 pt
for the title of the article. Note that the papers which are accept for
publication will not be reduced any further.

The first page of the article should be prepared according to the order:
title, authors, affiliation and abstract, in one single column. After
this, the main text of the article should follow in the first page
and be written using a double column format. Each column must be 7.5 cm
wide, with a 1 cm space between columns.

The main text of the article should be divided into Introduction, Body,
Conclusions and should be followed by acknowledgements (when
appropriate),
references (IEEE style) and appendices (when appropriate).

2 - Organization of the Article

The title of the article should be centred and in bold, using font
Times New Roman 14 pts.

The details given about each author should be: author's name,
affiliation,
postal address (including postcode) and email (if possible).

The side margins for the abstract should be 3 cm and the word Abstract
should be centred and in bold. The abstract section should contain a
brief description of the main points of the article with 50-200 words
and a list of 3-5 keywords.

3 - Address for Article Submission

Send four copies (one original and 3 copies) of submitted papers to:

    Prof. Luiz P. Caloba - III CBRN
    COPPE/UFRJ/Eletrica - CP: 68.504
    Centro de Tecnologia, Bloco H, Sala H-321
    UFRJ - Ilha do Fundao
    21.945-970 - Rio de Janeiro - RJ
    BRAZIL
    Tel: +55(0)21 590 0441, +55(0)21 590 9049
    E-mail: caloba@coe.ufrj.br

The submitted papers should be accompanied by a letter declaring that,
if the paper is accepted for publication in the proceedings of the 
III Brazilian Congress on Neural Networks, at least one of the
authors of the article will present the paper at the Congress.

Articles submitted by e-mail or fax will not be accepted.

- - -----------------------------------------------------------------
IMPORTANT DATES:
Deadline for submission of papers:         April  4, 1997.
Notification of acceptance/rejection:      May   20, 1997.
Final camera-ready paper submission:       June  15, 1997.
    
IV  Brazilian School on Neural Networks:   July  21, 1997.
III Brazilian Congress on Neural Networks: July  22-24, 1997.
- - -----------------------------------------------------------------

To avoid delaying the preparation of the proceedings of the IV CBRN,
the final camera-ready version (including the corrections)
of the accepted papers must be send directly to the chairman
of the organizing committee at the address below:

     Prof. Jorge M. Barreto - III CBRN
     UFSC-CTC-INE
     Campus Universitario
     88040-900-Florianopolis-SC
     BRAZIL
     
- - -----------------------------------------------------------------
BRAZILIAN COUNCIL ON NEURAL NETWORKS
Luiz P. Caloba (UFRJ), Chairman
Alexandre P. Alves da Silva (EFEI, SBA)
Cairo L. Nascimento Jr. (ITA)
Carlos E. Pedreira (PUC/RJ, SBEB)
Francisco M. de Assis (UFPB)
Mauro C. Klinguelfus  (UFPR-LAC/COPEL)
Rui Seara (UFSC, SBT)

PROGRAM COMMITTEE:
Luiz P. Caloba (UFRJ)
Alexandre P. Alves da Silva (EFEI)
Carlos E. Pedreira (PUC/RJ)
Fernando Gomide (UNICAMP)
Jose N. Amaral (PUC/RS)
Ricardo Tanscheit (PUC/RJ)
Rui Seara (UFSC)
Ruy Luiz Milidiu (PUC/RJ)

ORGANISING COMMITTEE:
Jorge Muniz Barreto (UFSC), Chairman
Aurora R. Pozo (UFSC)
Cairo L. Nascimento Jr.(ITA)
Fernando M. de Azevedo (UFSC)
Paulo Freitas (UFSC)
Paulo Borges ((UFSC)
Silvia M. Nassar (UFSC)
Solange Quintella (UFSC), Public Relations Officer.


For more information, please contact the chairman of the organising
committee at the address below:

     Prof. Jorge M. Barreto - III CBRN
     UFSC-CTC-INE
     Campus Universitario
     88040-900-Florianopolis-SC
     BRAZIL
     E-mail: cbrn-bar@inf.ufsc.br
     http://www.inf.ufsc.br/~cbrn-bar/

- - ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Obs:

Detailed instructions for authors preparing papers to be
presented at the III Brazilian Congress on Neural Networks
are availabe as a MS-Word for Windows 6.0 file at:

   http://www.ele.ita.cta.br/~cairo/3cbrn/
   file: Inst_Engl_WW6.doc (papers written in English)
   file: Inst_Port_WW6.doc (papers written in Portuguese or Spanish)


End of Msg

------------------------------

Subject: ICONIP'97:special session
From:    Ken-ichiro Miura <ken@nagano.is.hosei.ac.jp>
Organization: Nagano Labo., Hosei Univ.
Date:    Thu, 27 Mar 1997 16:18:32 +0900

ICONIP'97, The Fourth International Conference on Neural Information
Processing, November 24-28, 1997. Dunedin/Queenstown, New Zealand


Special Session on Spatio-temporal Information Processings in the Brain


                             CALL FOR PAPERS


 Recently spatio-temporal aspects have been recognized to be very important
in order to understand the neural information processing mechanisms in the
brain.  The importance lies not only in the sensory systems such as the
visual system, the auditory system etc. but also in the higher order
systems like memory and learning. Many works from the aspects are now being
done. A special session devoted to these works will be organized at
ICONIP'97.

 The scope of the special session covers computational theories, neural
network models, physiological studies and psychological studies which are
related to spatio-temporal information processings in the brain.
Prospective authors are invited to submit papers to the special session.
(Traveling expenses and conference fee are not supplied.)


The submissions must be received by May 30, 1997, Please send five copies
of your manuscript to

Prof. Takashi Nagano, Special Session Organizer
Dept. of Industrial and Systems Engineering,
College of Engineering, Hosei University
3-7-2 Kajino-cho, Koganei,
Tokyo, 184, JAPAN




For the most up-to-data information about ICONIP'97, please browse the
conference home page:
http://divcom.otago.ac.nz:800/com/infosci/kel/iconip97.htm

Important dates: Paper due:        May 30, 1997
Notification of acceptance:        July 20, 1997
Final camera-ready papers due:     August 20, 1997



Manuscript format: Papers must be written in English on A4-format white
paper with one inch margins on all four sides, in two column format, on not
more than 4 pages, single-spaced, in Times or similar font of 10 points,
and printed on one side of the page only.


- ------------------------------------------------
Takashi Nagano
Dept. of Industrial and Systems Engineering,
College of Engineering, Hosei University
3-7-2 Kajino-cho, Koganei, Tokyo  JAPAN
Tel +81-423-87-6350   Fax +81-423-87-6350
mailto:nagano@nagano.is.hosei.ac.jp
- ------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Subject: CALL FOR PAPER: NICROSP97
From:    Vincenzo Piuri <piuri@elet.polimi.it>
Date:    Thu, 27 Mar 1997 08:51:46 +0100

Dear Colleagues,

this is to remind you the submission deadline for the abstracts. 
Feel you free to contact me or prof. Watanabe for possible 
short extensions.

Best regards

Vincenzo Piuri



=====================================================================
                             NICROSP'97

           1997 International Workshop on Neural Networks 
 for Identification, Control, Robotics, and Signal/Image Processing

       Act-City Hamamatsu Convention Center, Hamamatsu, Japan
                          6-8 October 1997
=====================================================================

In cooperation (pending) with: ACM SIGART, IEEE Circuits and Systems
Society, IEEE Computer Society, IEEE CS Technical Committee on
Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, IEEE Control Systems
Society, IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society, IEEE Neural
Network Council, IEEE System, Man, and Cybernetics Society, IMACS.


                         CALL FOR PAPERS

This international workshop is a unique synergetic discussion forum
and a strong link between theoretical researchers and practitioners
in the application fields of neural networks. The three-day single-
session forum will provide an ideal environment for in-depth analyses
and discussions on the following topics of neural network
applications: Architectures, Cellular Neural Networks, Data Analysis,
Fuzzy Neural Systems, Genetic and Annealing Algorithms, Hardware
Implementation, Image and Signal Processing, Industrial Application,
Intelligent Control, Machine and 3D Vision, Model Identification,
Motion Analysis, Optimization, Robotics, System Identification, Time
Series Analysis. Paper related, but not limited, to these topics are
solicited.

Paper submission: Interested authors should submit 3 copies of an
extended summary (less than 2,000 words) via air-mail or express
courier to prof. Kenzo Watanabe, NICROSP97 Technical Program 
Co-Chair. The first page should include: full title of the paper,
authors, affiliation, complete address, fax number and email address
of the corresponding author.
Submission implies the willingness of at least one of the authors to
present the paper, if accepted. The dealine for submission is 
31 March 1997.

Paper Review: Papers will be reviewed by senior reseachers in the
field and authors will be informed of the decisions by 1 June 1997.
Authors of accepted papers should submit the final camera-ready
manuscripts by 31 July 1997. The manuscript should conform to
the one-column IEEE-book-standard and is limited to 10 pages.


General Chair
Prof. Vincenzo Piuri
Dept. Electronics & Information
Politecnico di Milano
piazza L. da Vinci 32
I-20133 Milano, Italy
phone +39-2-2399-3606
fax +39-2-2399-3411
email piuri@elet.polimi.it

              Technical Program Co-Chairs
Prof. Kenzo Watanabe              Prof. Emil Petriu
Research Institute of             Dept. Electrical Engineering
Electronics                       University of Ottawa
Shizuoka University               161 Louis Pasteur St.
3-5-1 Johoku                      Ottawa, K1N 6N5 Canada
Hamamatsu 432 Japan               phone: +1(613)562-5800
phone: +81(53)478-1326            fax: +1(613)562-5175
fax: +81(53)478-1326              email: petriu@elg.uottawa.ca
email: 
watanabe-k@rie.shizuoka.ac.jp
=====================================================================


------------------------------

Subject: post-doc at BFGoodrich
From:    Luis Rabelo - x5203 <lcr@research.bfg.com>
Date:    Fri, 28 Mar 1997 14:36:22 -0500


BFGoodrich Advanced Technology Group invites applications for a
post-doctoral position in *Adaptive Computing* that is immediatly open, in
the areas of neural networks in process control, traditional control, and
genetic algorithms in design optimization.  Applicants should have
experience in C/C++programming (or several graduate courses related) in
UNIX and Windows.  All applications must include a comprehensive resume
and a list of two references.  Salary commensurate with
qualifications. The selected candidate will work in leading edge
engineering projects.  Knowledge of Matlab is a plus. The deadline for
applications is May 1, 1997.

Please send materials by mail and/or e-mail (ASCII)  to 

Luis C. Rabelo, Ph.D.
Senior R&D Engineer
Advanced Technology Group
The BFGoodrich Company
9921 Brecksville Road
Brecksville, Ohio 44141

lcr@research.bfg.com

- ----- End Included Message -----


------------------------------

Subject: Final Call for Papers: IEEE Special Issue
From:    motoda@sanken.osaka-u.ac.jp
Date:    Sat, 29 Mar 1997 17:20:22 +0900


                        Final Call For Papers

                  IEEE Expert Special Issue on 

        Feature Transformation and Subset Selection

        Guest Editors: Huan Liu and Hiroshi Motoda

I. BACKGROUND

As computer and database technologies have advanced, human
beings rely more and more on computers to accumulate data,
process data, and make use of data. Machine learning, knowledge
discovery, and data mining are some of the Artificial
Intelligence (AI) tools that help human accomplish those tasks. 
Researchers and practitioners realize that in order to use these
tools effectively, an important part is pre-processing in which
data is processed before it is presented to any learning,
discovering, or visualizing algorithm. In many discovery
applications (for example, marketing data analysis), a key
operation is to find subsets of the population that behave
enough alike to be worthy of focused analysis. Feature
transformation and subset selection are applied frequently in
data pre-processing.

Feature transformation (FT) is a process through which a new set
of features is created. The variants of FT are feature
construction, feature discovery, and feature extraction. 
Assuming the original set consists of A1, A2,..., An features,
these variants can be defined below.

 Feature construction is a process that augments the space of
 features by inferring or creating additional features. After
 feature construction, we may have additional m features
 An+1,An+2,...,An+m. For example, a new feature Ak (n < k <= 
 n+m) could be constructed by performing a logical operation of
 Ai and Aj from the original set.

 Feature discovery is a process that discovers missing
 information about the relationships between features and forms
 a new set of features. An example of feature discovery is as
 follows: a two-dimensional problem (say, A1=width and
 A2=length) may be transformed to a one-dimensional problem
 (B1=area) after feature discovery.

 Feature extraction is a process that extracts a set of new
 features from the original features through some functional
 mapping. After feature extraction, we have B1, B2,..., Bm (m <
 n), Bi = Fi(A1,A2,...,An), and Fi is a mapping function. For
 instance, B1=c1A1+c2A2 where c1 and c2 are constants.

Subset selection (SS) is different from FT in that no new
features will be generated, but only a subset of original
features is selected and the feature space is reduced. As to FT,
feature construction expands the feature space, whereas feature
discovery and feature extraction reduce the feature space.

There is a wide and strong interest in FT and SS among
practitioners from Statistics, Pattern Recognition, Data Mining,
and Knowledge Discovery to Machine Learning since data
preprocessing is an essential step in the knowledge discovery
process for real-world applications.

II. OBJECTIVE and SCOPE

The objective of this special issue is to report on the recent
studies in FS and SS. The main goal is to increase the awareness
of the AI community to the research of FT and SS, currently
conducted in isolation.  Through this special issue, we hope to
produce a contemporary overview of modern solutions, to create
synergy among these seemingly different branches but with a
similar goal - facilitating data processing and knowledge
discovery, and to point to future research directions.

Papers are expected to cover the following aspects of FT and SS;
in all cases, authors are strongly encouraged to use real-world
examples to show that their work is scalable and applicable to
practical problems:

  . Theories and Methodologies of novel approaches to feature
    transformation and subset selection

  . Applications of feature transformation and subset selection
    to real-world problems: practice, experiments, and lessons
    learned

  . Combinations of different methods such as machine learning,
    statistics as well as neural networks in feature
    transformation
 
  . Future directions and important issues in unifying this
    currently diversified field

III. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS and SCHEDULE

High quality, original papers that deal with real-world problems
are solicitated. All the submitted manuscripts will be subject
to a rigorous review process. Manuscripts should be prepared in
accordance with the IEEE Expert "submission guidelines". 
Manuscripts should be approximately 5,000 words long, preferably
not exceeding 10 references. This special issue is scheduled to
appear in late 1997.

Important Dates:

Submission      April 30 (FIRM DEADLINE)

Notification    June 30


Prospective authors should submit six copies of the completed
manuscript to one of the guest editors:

Huan Liu                                       Hiroshi Motoda
S16 #4-17                                      Institute of Scientific & Industrial 
Dept of Info Sys & Comp Sci            Research
National University of Singapore   Osaka University
Kent Ridge, Singapore, 119260      Ibaraki, Osaka  567, Japan
liuh@iscs.nus.sg                           motoda@sanken.osaka-u.ac.jp


------------------------------

Subject: Model of orientation selectivity
From:    Matteo Carandini <matteo@cns.nyu.edu>
Date:    Mon, 31 Mar 1997 00:20:54 -0500


A MATLAB package is now available that implements a simple recurrent model
of orientation selectivity in the primary visual cortex. It can be run in
seconds on a personal computer, and allows one to observe the responses of
recurrent models to a variety of visual stimuli. The model is described in
the attached abstract. The address for downloads is
http://cns.nyu.edu/home/matteo/v1ori.html.


  PREDICTIONS OF A RECURRENT MODEL OF ORIENTATION SELECTIVITY
  Matteo Carandini and Dario L. Ringach
  Vision Research, submitted (1996)


  Recurrent models of orientation selectivity in the visual cortex
  postulate that an initially broad tuning given by the pattern of
  geniculate afferents is substantially sharpened by intracortical
  feedback.

  We show that these models can be tested on the basis of their
  predicted responses to certain visual stimuli, without the need for
  pharmacological or physiological manipulations.  First, we consider
  a detailed recurrent model proposed by Somers, Nelson and Sur (1995)
  and show that it can be simplified to a single equation: a
  center-surround feedback filter in the orientation domain.  Then, we
  explore the responses of the simplified model to stimuli containing
  two or more orientations.  We find that the model exhibits peculiar
  responses to stimuli containing two orientations, such as plaids or
  crosses: if the component orientations differ by less than
  45 degrees the model cannot distinguish between them; if the
  orientations differ by more than 45 degrees the model
  overestimates their angle by as much as 30 degrees.  Moreover, the
  model cannot signal the presence of three orientations separated by
  60 degrees (it responds as if there were only two orientations),
  and the addition of two-dimensional visual noise to an oriented
  stimulus results in strong spurious responses at the orthogonal
  orientation.

  We argue that the effects of attraction and repulsion between
  orientations and the emergence of responses at off-optimal
  orientations are common to a wide class of feedback models of
  orientation selectivity.  These models could thus be tested by
  measuring the visual responses of cortical neurons to stimuli
  containing multiple orientations.


. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
Matteo Carandini
http://cns.nyu.edu/home/matteo

Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Center for Neural Science
New York University
4 Washington Place #809
New York, NY 10003


------------------------------

Subject: GMDH
From:    rlinden@pobox.com
Date:    Tue, 01 Apr 1997 11:20:57 +0000

Hello. I'm a Brazilian researcher doing some work on time series 
prediction and I would like to know if someone has some good 
references on  the GMDH network.

Thank you in advance.

Yours,
Ricardo Linden
UFRJ - Federal University of Rio de Janeiro


------------------------------

Subject: vision postdoc position at Columbia
From:    Ning Qian <qian@brahms.cpmc.columbia.edu>
Date:    Tue, 01 Apr 1997 15:07:33 -0700

         Postdoctoral Position in Visual Psychophysics
             Center for Neurobiology and Behavior 
                     Columbia University
                         New York, NY

A postdoctoral fellowship position in Visual Psychophysics is
available immediately in my lab at Columbia University.  The
individual will participate in psychophysics projects that investigate
the mechanisms of motion detection, stereoscopic depth perception and
motion-stereo integration.  There will be close interactions between
these projects and the related computational modeling projects in the
same lab.  The details of our research interests and publications can
be found at the web site listed below.  The funding for the position
is available for two years with the possibility of renewal.
Applicants should have a strong background in visual psychophysics and
should be able to write programs (or adapt our current psychophysics
software package) for generating visual stimuli.  Please send a CV,
representative publications and two letters of recommendations to:

Dr. Ning Qian
Center for Neurobiology and Behavior
Columbia University
722 W. 168th St., A730
New York, NY 10032

qian@brahms.cpmc.columbia.edu (email)
212-960-2213 (phone)
212-960-2561 (fax)

I will attend the ARVO meeting in May.  The phone number of my hotel
is 954-525-3484.  Please email me if you would like to arrange a
meeting there.

*********************************************************************h
The details of our research interests and publications can be found at:

http://brahms.cpmc.columbia.edu

Selected Papers:

Binocular Disparity and the Perception of Depth [Review], Ning Qian,
Neuron, 1997, 18:359-368. 

The Effect of Complex Motion Pattern on Speed Perception, Bard J Geesaman
and Ning Qian (submitted to Vision Research).

A Novel Speed Illusion Involving Expansion and Rotation Patterns, 
Bard J Geesaman and Ning Qian, Vision Research, 1996, 36:3281-3292.

Transparent Motion Perception as Detection of Unbalanced Motion 
Signals I: Psychophysics, Ning Qian, Richard A. Andersen and Edward H. 
Adelson, J. Neurosci., 1994, 14:7357--7366.

A Physiological Model for Motion-stereo Integration and a Unified
Explanation of the Pulfrich-like Phenomena, Ning Qian and Richard
A. Andersen, Vision Research, 1997 (in press).

Physiological Computation of Binocular Disparity, Ning Qian and
Yudong Zhu, Vision Research, 1997 (in press).

Binocular Receptive Field Profiles, Disparity Tuning and
Characteristic Disparity, Yudong Zhu and Ning Qian, Neural
Computation, 1996, 8:1647-1677.

Computing Stereo Disparity and Motion with Known Binocular Cell
Properties, Ning Qian, Neural Computation, 1994, 6:390-404.

------------------------------

Subject: Crete Course in Computational Neuroscience
From:    Erik De Schutter <erik@bbf.uia.ac.be>
Date:    Tue, 01 Apr 1997 23:17:52 +0100

                                 LAST CALL

                 CRETE COURSE IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE

                        SEPTEMBER 7 - OCTOBER 3, 1997

                         UNIVERSITY OF CRETE, GREECE

DIRECTORS:    Erik De Schutter (University of Antwerp, Belgium)
              Adonis Moschovakis (University of Crete, Greece)
              Idan Segev (Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel)
              Jim Bower (California Institute of Technology, USA)


The Crete Course in Computational Neuroscience introduces students to 
the practical application of computational methods in neuroscience, in 
particular how to create biologically realistic models of neurons and 
networks.  

The course consists of two complimentary parts.  A distinguished 
international faculty gives morning lectures on topics in experimental 
and computational neuroscience.  The rest of the day is spent learning 
how to use simulation software and how to implement a model of the 
system the student wishes to study.  The first week of the course 
introduces students to the most important techniques in modeling single 
cells, networks and neural systems.  Students learn how to use the 
GENESIS, NEURON, XPP and other software packages on their individual 
unix workstations. During the following three weeks the lectures will 
be more general, but each week topics ranging from modeling single cells 
and subcellular processes through the simulation of simple circuits, 
large neuronal networks and system level models of the the brain will
be covered. The course ends with a presentation of the students' 
modeling projects.

The Crete Course in Computational Neuroscience is designed for advanced 
graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in a variety of disciplines, 
including neuroscience, physics, electrical engineering, computer science 
and psychology.  Students are expected to have a basic background in 
neurobiology as well as some computer experience.  A total of 28 students 
will be accepted with an age limit of 35 years.  We will accept students
of any nationality, but the majority will be from the European Union
and affiliated countries (Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein and Norway).  
We specifically encourage applications from researchers who work in 
less-favoured regions of the EU, from women and from researchers from 
industry.  

Every student will be charged a tuition fee of 500 ECU (approx. US$630).
In the case of students with a nationality from the EU, affiliated 
countries or Japan, the tuition fee covers lodging, local travel and all 
course-related expenses.  All applicants with other nationalities will 
be charged an ADDITIONAL fee of 1000 ECU (approx. US$1260) which covers 
lodging, local travel and course-related expenses.  For nationals from 
EU and affiliated countries economy travel from an EU country to Crete 
will be refunded after the course.  A limited number of students from 
less-favoured regions world-wide will get their fees and travel refunded.

More information and application forms can be obtained:
   - WWW access: http://bbf-www.uia.ac.be/Crete_index.html
     Please apply electronically using a web browser if possible.
   - email: crete_course@bbf.uia.ac.be
   - by mail:  Prof. E. De Schutter
               Born-Bunge Foundation
               University of Antwerp - UIA,      
               Universiteitsplein 1
               B2610 Antwerp
               Belgium
               FAX: +32-3-8202669

APPLICATION DEADLINE:  April 5, 1997.  Applicants will be notified of the
                       results of the selection procedures by May 5.

FACULTY: L. Abbott (Brandeis University, USA), A. Aertsen (Albert Ludwigs
         University Freiburg, Germany), D. Beeman (University of 
         Colorado, Boulder, USA), A. Borst (Max Planck Institute Tuebingen, 
         Germany), R. Calabrese (Emory University, USA), A. Destexhe 
         (Universite Laval, Canada), R. Douglas (Institute of 
         Neuroinformatics, Zurich), O. Ekeberg (Royal Institute of
         Technology, Sweden), T. Flash (Weizmann Institute of Science,
         Israel), A. Feltz (University of Strasbourg, France),  D.
         Hansel (Ecole Polytechnique Paris, France), M. Hines (Yale 
         University, USA), J.J.B. Jack (Oxford University, England), 
         R. Kotter (Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf, Germany), 
         G. LeMasson (University of Bordeaux, France), K. Martin (Institute 
         of Neuroinformatics, Zurich), M. Nicolelis (Duke University, USA), 
         S. Redman (Australia National University Canberra), J.M. Rinzel 
         (NIH, USA), S.A. Shamma (University of Maryland, USA), H. Sompolinsky 
         (Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel), M. Spira (Hebrew
         University Jerusalem, Israel), S. Tanaka (RIKEN, Japan), 
         A.M. Thomson (Royal Free Hospital, England), T.L. Williams 
         (London University, England), C. Wilson (University of Tennessee, 
         USA), Y. Yarom (Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel)

The Crete Course in Computational Neuroscience is supported by the 
European Commission (4th Framework Training and Mobility of Researchers 
program), by The Brain Science Foundation (Tokyo) and by UNESCO. 

Local administrative organization: the Institute of Applied and 
Computational Mathematics of FORTH (Crete, GR).


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End of Neuron Digest [Volume 97 Issue 16]
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